Before the pandemic struck, John and I used to meet every week at the halfway point between our two houses, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. We’d go to the same restaurant where they’d let us hang out for a few hours at a table (we tipped well) and think of new ideas for comics. Nearby our favorite haunt, The Tomato Cafe, was a restaurant/bar with an Irish/Mexican name, Juan Murphy’s. We were intrigued and came up with our own Jewish/Mexican alternative, Hava Tequila. Which to any of our readers who never have attended at Jewish wedding or bar Mitzvah, is a play on the song, Hava Nagila, which they play at every single event while the guests dance the Hora and the celebrated person or people are lifted high into the air while seated in a chair, holding on for dear life (the truly brave and insane hold on with only one hand while wildly waving their napkins in the other). The logo for our restaurant was immediately apparent to John, who while not Jewish, grew up in Long Island and worked in Manhattan so he developed a knowledge of Jewish culture, through osmosis. What is particularly impressive in this regard is he even knows how to spell tchotchke. John used triangular tortilla chips, one pointing up and the other pointing down to make a perfect deep-fried Star of David and the rest was history. It’s a great idea for a restaurant, by the way, as long as you can figure out how to get around the not being able to mix meat with dairy thing.

Our other effort was about misunderstanding song lyrics. As we get older our hearing doesn’t actually improve, so there’s that. And then it’s just because sometimes it’s difficult to hear somebody’s pronunciation. Perhaps the most famous example is Jimi Hendrix singing “scuse me while I kiss the sky.” We challenge anyone to hear the difference between that and “scuse me while I kiss this guy.” Can’t do it. Absolutely impossible. In this case, it’s a little easier to hear the difference between “There’s a bad moon on the right,” and “There’s a bathroom on the right.” But when you gotta go, you gotta go. It’s all you can think about. And it probably affects your hearing too.

One final personal note today. I (Andy) felt a little shortness of breath and light-headedness on an elliptical trainer a month ago. If you are reading The New 60 and you’re around 60 or 70 or 80 or even 50 and you feel anything like this, please check it out and don’t ignore it. Turns out yours truly had 80% blockage in one of my arteries and had a stent put in yesterday. Everything is fine but if I had ignored it, it might not have been okay, and John might have needed a new writing partner. Thankfully my wife set me straight and told me in so many words to get my ass to a cardiologist. In true New 60 thinking, the thing that freaked me out the most was the thought of not being able to eat so many cheeseburgers, hot dogs, pizzas and ice cream cones anymore. Turns out I was right. So if I happen to wander into Hava Nagila one of these days, I’ll forget the cheese nachos and stick with the chicken fajitas.

Have a great weekend, I know I will. We’ll see you next week with two new ones,

Andy and John